The Blues were on easy street in the opening half hour of their encounter with bogey team Crystal Palace.

For 15 minutes they even enjoyed a remarkable 89% of possession while looking like they could carve the Londoners open at will.

Leon Osman was gliding around the midfield doing his best Andrea Pirlo impression and thoughts of that unpleasant evening against the Eagles at Goodison in April seemed a million miles away.

Then, in an instant, it all changed.

John Stones dithered in making a challenge on midfielder James McArthur in the area, and Howard rushed from his line in a rash attempt to avert danger.

He succeeded only in upending the former Wigan man and changing the tone of a game which previously looked to be the easiest of three points.

Up stepped Mile Jedinak to send the American the wrong way and suddenly the Blues also lost their way.

In a flash, memories of the last time Palace came and gave Everton an untimely bloody nose came rushing back.

Neil Warnock’s men went within inches of giving themselves a half-time lead as Yannick Bolasie, again a thorough pain in the backside for the Blues, saw his deflected shot strike the corner of the goal frame.

Perhaps with their recent defensive woes in the back of their minds, Everton began to look vulnerable and nervy whenever the visitors probed.

It is now 13 goals conceded in five games for the Toffees – more than any other side in the Premier League.

But the most frustrating thing about this latest setback at the hands of Palace is that the wounds were all self-inflicted.

Teams are not having to work particularly hard to hurt Everton.

They are not scoring goals of staggering quality.

Instead any opposition side at the moment can, at some point, sit back and wait for the Blues to shoot themselves in the foot.

Just nine minutes into the second half Howard’s torrid afternoon continued. This time he misjudged a routine cross from Martin Kelly, missing his attempted catch, and Fraizer Campbell headed home to give his side the lead.

Two basic errors punished with two goals. From that point onwards Palace were able to do what they do best.

A group of players well drilled by Tony Pulis and now further instructed in the defensive arts by Warnock performed a characteristic and highly effective stifling.

Everton had previously been finding gaps in Palace’s defence for fun. Osman’s perfectly weighted pass almost created an opener for Christian Atsu on his full debut. Then the veteran set up Romelu Lukaku for the game’s opening goal, a cool finish after he was put one on one with Julian Speroni.

But once they had their lead Palace were largely impenetrable in the phase of the game when a comeback may most likely have been mustered.

And by then all Everton’s early conviction had vanished. Suddenly Osman could do little right, Stones was being caused no end of problems by Bolasie and Roberto Martinez’s rotation was open to questions.

The Catalan had chosen to rest Kevin Mirallas and Steven Naismith in favour of Samuel Eto’o, who started on the left of an attacking triumvirate, and Atsu.

For that opening 30 minutes it looked like a wise choice. Atsu’s pace and penetration was giving Palace nightmares and Eto’o, who gilds everything he does with sheer quality, looked dangerous.

However it is hard to legislate for two mistakes out of nowhere. What might concern the Blues boss further though, is how his team allowed themselves to sag in response.

Martinez had previously called Everton’s defensive woes a matter of mentality not tactics. And it certainly seemed that way when they reared up again.

Osman, by then having a difficult afternoon, dwelled too long on the ball and Jason Puncheon dispossessed him before setting up Bolasie to hammer the final nail in the coffin.

Another preventable setback. Another out-of-character decision by an otherwise trusted performer.

Oh how Seamus Coleman was missed too, The right-back was sat watching in the stands, his head still ringing after a knock on Thursday night. He wasn’t the only one.

At least the introduction of Mirallas and Naismith stretched the visitors and belatedly started to find space behind them. James McCarthy was upended and Baines converted from the spot to pull one back.

But even with six minutes of added time the Toffees were largely reduced to going sideways in front of a bank of yellow shirts as Palace dug in.

Martinez switched to a three-man defence and asked Darron Gibson to try and find the killer pass to claw another back. It wasn’t to be.

Last season when Palace came to L4 and won 3-2 they dented Everton’s Champions League hopes in the process.

Talk of the top four will be a long way off this time around if Everton can’t get their heads around the art of defence once more.